Chapter 265 – Chapter 265 ― Gap (5)
Episode 265 ― Niche (5)
Aina widened her eyes at the answer that flowed from the human mouth.
“An order has been given to destroy the borders of the forest.”
“How?”
“Whether you set fire to it or dig up the ground… The methods were not limited.”
As her man added her words word by word, Aina’s face became more and more distorted.
Thinking that he might jump up and grab the knight by the collar, Grunent reached out and squeezed Aina’s hand.
Aina, who suddenly regained her consciousness at the warmth of her grip on her hand, then looked back at Grunent.
As if not knowing how to contain her anger, Aina let out a sigh over and over again before looking away from her.
“It’s not because of the same humans that humans started the war again.”
Roan asked a question with his clasped hands on one knee. As if she was sleepy for a moment, the man who had been staring blankly at Roan nodded her head coolly.
A different answer came to the question repeated earlier.
Except for Grünent, the others tilted their heads and tried to understand the man’s reaction, and only Grünent, who vaguely grasped Roan’s skill with his high ‘Politics’ skill, understood what was going on.
The Emperor’s previous question was whether he knew that there were humans in Evirgio and deliberately destroyed the place where there were humans. The knight showed by his actions that he was right.
The question that followed was whether that was the purpose of the war. It was in an oblique form, saying ‘the reason for breaking the peace was to kill humans’.
Humans did not respond to that.
But the traitor said that it would be so.
Living in a world where priests exist,
It was a common method of communication used by human knights who knew how to speak while hiding their original purpose by mixing in the truth.
“You didn’t lie to Jim earlier, but you didn’t even dare to tell the truth. That’s why I couldn’t figure out the lie.”
“… Yes.”
The knight made a slightly distressed expression.
This is because if you try to hide or deceive, or awaken negative emotions, the skill of ‘charisma’ is hindered.
It wasn’t until Helen concentrated her powers that her man returned to a possessed, serene expression.
“I was told to destroy the forest,” She said, “By any means. In the process, it is inevitable that the traitorous human being will die. Don’t let your original purpose go unnoticed. To put it all together, the order you received should be this much. Yes?”
The man nodded her head.
“That’s right.”
With this, Roan confirmed that the humans had come to touch the Dark Forest, not Evirgio.
“Have you heard anything more about the forest?”
“Knight. Is there anything dangerous in the forest? Please tell me Can’t we just let that little life die?”
“What a pity…”
The knight muttered, repeating Helen’s words.
“The forest race is trying to kill humans.”
“What?!”
This time, Grunent was a step behind.
Aina jumped to her feet with her spirited face, and Grunent and Yurtalia hurriedly pulled her back into her seat.
“They say there are dangerous things in the Dark Forest… The forest fairy joined hands with her demons… His Majesty said that if he couldn’t find it, it would be better to burn the whole forest… You did.”
“Crazy bastards…”
Aina gritted her teeth.
“Did Sprouse III say that to Baron Berger?”
“Gyoji… You received it. All lords near the border have been contacted to resume the war to destroy the forest.
… The baron had the knights on standby because of a sudden order… After receiving confirmation that the troops had departed from the capital and the surrounding territories, we dispatched our knights.”
“Isn’t it common for hundreds of provocations near the border?”
“… That’s right.”
The King’s Banner has not yet appeared.
It means that the king can cut off his tail as much as he wants. Sprouse III can claim that he took military action arbitrarily because he didn’t like seeing the demons continue to take humans by the small lords near the border.
It’s enough to set fire to the dark forest, and it’s enough to say that it caught fire while setting fire to the clearing.
Forest fairies don’t interact with humans.
“… But why, now, here?”
Roan’s fingers clenched his armrests, and they clashed several times with a small sound.
The Dark Forest is a truly gigantic space the size of a Great Britain, penetrating the middle of the border between Merde and Evirgio.
There was no need to take risks by coming all the way to the border and performing diversionary operations as knights. This is because the western end on the other side of the Dark Forest is only 10 days away from Spros, the capital of Merde.
So, if you want to touch the dark forest, just start from the edge of the forest occupying the middle of Merde and mobilize the troops of the nearby territory to attack.
Then there is no need to touch the border, and there is no need to live under the misconception that the war will start again.
“It looks like we have to attack the Dark Forest near Xeno and Hazark right away. Even if you don’t want to go to war. Or is it that the inside is working so urgently that the means of war is absolutely necessary?”
In the end, the conclusion Roan and Grunent came to was this.
After returning the interrogated knight,
Roan and Aina went to the forest fairy patrol’s temporary shelter, which was camping far away from the soldiers’ camp, and delivered these words.
Iris, who had come into the tent and looked at Aina who was screaming in confusion, agreed with Roan and Grünent’s explanation.
“Somehow, I thought it was strange that there was a sudden big fire. Even though the magic around the Dark Forest can prevent even such accidents.”
“Can you tell me what is around there?”
Aina and Iris exchanged glances.
Aina was the first to speak.
“About the northeast residence where His Majesty came last time.”
“Any other residence? Aren’t there any residences in the south?”
“It is more than a day’s walk from your city of Hazark. It must be hard to see it as close by human standards.”
She remembered that the last time she visited the northeast residence, she had been sprinting for two full hours. Did she say that it takes a day for a human to walk?
A day at the forest fairy’s speed would never come close to humans.
Roan frowned slightly.
“Then what were you aiming for, human?”
Roan, who was lost in thought for a moment, suddenly felt a sense of incongruity.
Aina is acting out of her temper like that. It is because humans will not be forgiven for daring to touch the sacred ground of the goddess and the forest fairy that have been going on for thousands of years.
And Aina was a forest fairy who was friendly to humans. She stayed with humans until she was put in her prison.
But why isn’t Iris angry?
Normally, I think I should have run amok, saying, ‘How can a human being go to the land of forest fairies’?
As if fat, as if in trouble,
Roan questioned Iris, who kept her mouth shut.
“Strangely quiet. There is something.”
“… It is a matter beyond my judgment.”
Iris, who had been stabbed in the face of her, eventually confessed.
Aina looked at her sister with her eyes wide open.
It means that something Aina doesn’t know, but Iris knows, is in the dark forest near Hazark and Zeno.
If it’s around Zeno, have you ever seen it while going in and out of waypoints? I thought so for a moment, but there are only ruins around.
And the information about the ruins was known to all intellectuals with a certain amount of common sense, such as Grunent or Helen. If he was going to destroy the ruins without having to burn the surrounding forest, he would have gone and damaged them himself.
Oh, it’s not just ruins.
There is also a crystal cave nearby.
“Are there any seeds at the edge of the Dark Forest?”
Crystals are a substance created with power from the seeds of the Dark Forest, so if the King of Humans is still hunting for seeds, the Crystal Cave isn’t safe either.
But Iris, as if she was ashamed of having been caught off guard by Roan earlier, she grumbled.
“Seeds are also a mythical thing for us. You probably don’t even know where it is.”
“That is fortunate.”
“…”
“I want you to tell me everything if there is anything to point out. Because among the demons, the one who knows the most information is Jim, the emperor. As much as you give me information, we, along with you, will be able to properly respond to humans.”
Instead of answering, Kouran, who came with Iris, lightly tapped Roan on the shoulder.
It means to ask for a little time.
His face is also darker than usual.
‘As expected, there seems to be something near the fire forest.’
As Roan quietly sat with her hands together and waited for her answer, Iris, who had been organizing her thoughts for a while, sighed and replied.
“… First of all, the Duke wants to meet you.”
The purpose of penetrating the dark forest is to end the war quickly, but meeting the forest fairy’s duke is also an important issue.
In any case, the forest fairy’s duke, Emily, is currently the eldest being on this continent after Fiora. She’s also the one responsible for the attack.
Aside from what Schlaner is after, he’s willing to take the time to listen to advice.
“No problem.”
Hearing Roan’s happy answer, Iris’s expression improved just a little bit. She, too, knew Roan’s purpose in crossing the forest, and she seemed worried that she would delay or refuse this request.
After all, for a king, his people come first,
Others have no right to refuse it.
“Thank you.”
“It was nothing.”
“If I pass on the information I can give you, yes. I have some guesses on what humans are wary of.”
Roan’s eyes widened.
However, at the words that followed, Roan’s face twisted.
“But unfortunately I cannot give you an answer.”
“Can’t you answer me?”
“It means I can’t figure out what it is. Not just me, but even the Duke.”
“Ah.”
The situation was roughly understood.
It seems that something is happening in the dark forest that even the forest fairies don’t know about.
The Dark Forest is a space created by the Goddess for the forest fairies. The elder of the forest fairies said that they knew everything about the forest, but it seems that ‘accidents they don’t know’ have arisen in the house.
For example, a sinkhole suddenly appeared in the garden, or a wall that stood well collapsed.
It was only then that Roan could vaguely realize why Iris was hesitant.
In the meantime, her words continued.
“Fires broke out at the northeast and southeast ends of the Dark Forest, both at the same time. It’s near the cities of your demons, Zeno and Hazark. Since it is a forest, the patrols are always on the lookout for fires, and fires often spread.”
Iris fiddled with the teacup.
“Ordinary fires are quickly extinguished by magic in the forest. The wind stops and it doesn’t spread anymore, or it rains and it is extinguished. But this time the fire wasn’t the main thing.”
The movement of the fingers on the teacup stopped.
“Fire was the ‘method’. Human sorcerers, along with those who set the fire, entered the borders of the forest and tried to do a series of tasks.”
“… Hmm?”
The air inside the tent grew quiet.
Roan has never received a report like this.
The fact that there was no report means that the human wizards went directly to the Dark Forest without passing through Evirgio’s borders.
“They tried to destroy the ‘protection’.”
“Dare?!”
Aina was enraged and jumped up from her seat.
However, all of her except for her sat still as if frozen, unable to move.
I don’t know exactly what ‘protection’ is, but I can figure it out from the context.
Perhaps the magic of the goddess caught in the dark forest is ‘protection’.
“Each human mage has one thousand skills, but as a result of using magic while destroying the shape of the forest itself, part of the ‘protection’ has been distorted.”
Roan’s expression darkened.
So, with the words of the human knight,
Let’s put together the words of the forest fairy Iris.
The human wizard is determined to mobilize an army and is trying to strip away the protection of the Dark Forest,
He said there is a reason why he is doing that ‘now’.
“And the Duke…”
Iris, who was choosing a horse, gave a surprising answer not only to the forest fairy, but also to Roan, a demon.
“… You are having trouble recovering.”
